Chapter 17 Unearthly Howls
Sector 599 is in the middle of Operation Planet Phoenix: A project to revitalize Mars, making it habitable. There were ports all over the planet, containing mountains, cave buildings, and a long river that was expanded, connecting everything. Outside was a cold desert where urban legend has it, you could see beasts or aliens move. Their job was to investigate the recent attacks. Although there weren't animals, bodies were found floating outside, bitten and clawed all over. The attacks started with a janitor or maintenance person here and there but upon further investigation they were from increasingly powerful families. Commander Douglass couldn't leave, or get more funding. The New Martian Ports were mostly prisons, to earthlings they got whatever they deserved. A scientist was able to contact B.I.I.S, who referred them to Operatives of Ouroboros.
Using the river, Commander Douglass and the Operatives were able to sail to the morgue where Medical Examiner Weiss examined the markings, but because he was raised in the handful of ports for businesses he didn't have much experience with animals. Haku and Zabuza did, not only through camping for years while traveling but because it was one of Haku's talents and favorite hobbies. Examining the marks and hair found under the fingernails of the victim, the attacks resembled wolves. In Nikki's hand appeared tiny flames summoning bottles with purple petals and neck chains necklaces out of yesterday's Wolf's Bane, giving Commander Douglass and the other operatives the necklaces.
Commander Douglass received a call about another attack, leading him Haku, and Zabuza to the prison infirmary while the ladies investigated the grounds with a guard. "I don't understand, how could animals yet alone wolves be here?" Commander Douglass wondered on the boat. Haku replied looking at the bottle around his neck "Based on our first mission they may not be fully animal. We were told our missions would revolve around the supernatural." It took Commander Douglass time to understand, most media lost interest in the paranormal, when Operation Project Phoenix started almost anything fantasy was about space.
Once the three arrived in the prison infirmary, Commander Douglass was called again about the attack leaving Haku, Zabuza, and the patient alone with a sick guard who rushed into the bathroom immediately. The patient's face was bandaged, only brown tearful eyes visible and oddly familiar to Haku.
Behind them the door flew off the hinges, revealing a tall grey wolf in a tattered guard uniform going crazy, whining and flailing until Haku used his senbon to render him unconscious. As Zabuza stood guard, restraining the unconscious wolf with the other bed's sheet Haku called Nikki.
"You guys did great, phase 2's rounding up the rest and finding the Alpha. They're new and can't change around wolf's bane." Nikki said, under her foot in was another werewolf in earth and dark restraints. Newborns of some supernatural beings were especially dangerous because they lacked control, making their human side easy to manipulate by those pretending to guide them. Without a cure, the Lycanthropy could spread making Mars a kill or be killed free for all, where no one could hear you scream.